2019’s Top Types of Marketing Jobs

The idea of marketing is a lot simpler than the reality. In fact, people new to the field who are looking for marketing jobs tend to get overwhelmed because of the amount of specificity in job listings. Some positions require (or prefer) experience the job seeker may not have or hasn’t even heard of. As the job market expands alongside the explosive growth of the internet and ecommerce, new positions are created and old ones are redefined. We want to touch on some of the top types of marketing jobs so that you’re as informed as possible when looking for your next position.

1. Social Media Marketer

We are going to touch on this one first because so many people look at this as being one of the primary jobs in the field. People flock to this position and title, thinking that it’s mostly playing around on Twitter or Facebook.

And while using the networks is a major part of the job, the biggest part of it comes in as data analysis and seeing what works and what doesn’t. A social media marketer needs to be friendly and open to new relationships, but also willing to try new things to engage with their audience.

Adaptability is one of the strongest traits you can have because as the landscape of social media changes, so will this job. You will work with customer support, advertising, customer relations, PR, publicity, and a number of other departments.

You will be developing and enacting your company’s campaigns, too, so you’re going to need to be able to pull all that data together, parse it, and get to who needs it. It’s a tough job, and it’s more than playing on Twitter, but for the right person, the multifaceted aspect of the job is what makes it ideal.

2. Brand Manager

Brand managers do what they can to keep all the publicity and PR going out of your company putting out the same image. They tend to be in a supervisory role, and they get (generally) final say on what makes it in front of the public. Brand Managers focus on the overall image of the company and calculate how people will (or should) think about them and see them. They work with the design teams to pick the right fonts for the brand kit, and they will work with the social media team to make sure the tone of the posts is right for the business.

In a lot of ways, this might be the job many of you think of when you hear the word marketer, but it’s really only one of many. It is a very important one, though. One of the most important. Without a brand manager looking out for your brand’s best interests, you can get into some real sticky situations when it comes to what your company says and does.

We have an entire article on brand strategy, actually, so you should check that out for more information on the topic in general. If it sounds like something you’re up for, this may be the job to shoot for.

3. Content Creator

Yeah, content creation is definitely a type of marketing job. Think about it: every word you write is outreach between your brand and your audience. You share the content, and you interact with the members of the community. While you’re not the one digging through numbers and poring over data, you are an integral part of the marketing cycle. Your content is what the others use to bring people in, generate leads, and convert them into customers.

You are the cornerstone in an effective marketing plan, so if you are looking at different types of marketing jobs, make sure you check the content creation categories, too. The results there might be included in marketing departments, but not listed as such.

4. Brand Ambassador

In a way, a brand ambassador is a lower-level brand manager. Instead of setting the brand image and deciding what it should be, the brand ambassador is the one the public sees and interacts with. Your job as a brand ambassador is getting the word out about your company’s product, staying within the guidelines set up by the rest of the marketing team, and getting people excited about the brand. Your knowledge of the products and services of the company will probably be more in-depth than almost anyone else you work with, except maybe customer support. After all, you’re the one publically answering questions on the fly.

This kind of ambassadorship is done on social media, at pop-up events, and different various conferences and conventions. You are the representative face and voice of the company, and most of the time, you can expect a good amount of travel with this position as well. It is not uncommon for a brand ambassador to have 25-40 weekends each year booked with various events where they are representing the brand.

5. SEO Specialist

As an SEO specialist, you are diving deep into data and analytics, working to glean the most insight that you possibly can about what is driving the most conversions, most effectively. How Google and Bing (among others) rank search results changes all the time. If it’s not your job to keep up with it, falling behind is almost inevitable. As an SEO specialist, you will understand what the current landscape consists of, and you will be actively working to avoid blackhat and greyhat SEO tactics so that your network of sites is not penalized by the engines.

At its heart, an SEO specialist is a data analyst who works in concert with other marketing positions to make sure that your web content is as discoverable as possible. You may be working closely with advertising as well, trying and testing and perfecting the audiences and keywords for different ad campaigns across platforms.

6. Public Relations Coordinator

Often, people misunderstand the difference in public relations (PR) and publicity. A publicist is the one garnering publicity, planning campaigns and designing materials to plaster across the internet or local media. PR, on the other hand, is getting your feet on the ground and interacting with the public. You’re going into the community and talking with the demographic for your brand. You take the materials the publicist has prepared and use them to relate to the public.

Maybe you want to get more Spanish-speaking patrons at your library. So you’d go make contact with individuals and businesses that are already involved with the audience for your services and create relationships using various methods your publicists have made. Or your company makes books for special-needs children. The PR coordinator would make connections with schools and other organizations and then work with a brand ambassador to reach out and individually work with that community.

The big takeaway for going into PR versus other types of marketing jobs is PR gets out on the street and tells people about the brand in their own environment, while publicity tends to shout and post about the message so that it can be discovered passively. It takes both to run an effective marketing campaign.

7. Market Researcher/Analyst

It’s kind of impossible to market without knowing whom to market to. Running focus groups, surveys, and putting together case studies all fall right into this marketing niche. You will be the person who makes the decision as to whether X group spends enough on similar products to warrant an advertising campaign. Or perhaps you will be the one asking people which ending they prefer to the short film your company is producing.

When statistical studies are performed, it’s the market researchers who do them. They also tend to be the ones who read them and then converts those observations and that data into actionable steps.

One downside to market research is that not every company can afford a full-time staff member in this role. So you might be finding yourself working as a consultant for a firm that contracts out to many different businesses. Adaptability will definitely be a strong skill for you, as you might not always be researching and getting to know consumers in the same industry.

Conclusion

As you can see, the types of marketing jobs out there are as varied as the people who do them. Whether you’re a numbers person and love spreadsheets and CRMs or the kind who wants to walk the street and say hello to everyone you meet, there’s probably something for you in the field. If you’ve never considered a career in marketing, but some of these sound like they’re right up your alley, it’s definitely worth giving a deeper dive into and checking some job boards. You never know when opportunity will come knocking. Hey, turns out opportunity is a PR person!

What do you see as some of the strongest types of marketing jobs out there right now?